09 DECEMBER 2016

By Michael Norby: “Be like a duck,” British actor Michael Caine once advised. “Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.” It seems that super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe lives by this motto. He’s a phenomenal fighter known for his work ethic in camp, his superb conditioning and his whirlwind punch output which has proved the beating of all forty three of his opponent’s over a fifteen year career as a professional fighter.

By Paul Upham: The telephone was slammed down hard in Don King’s Las Vegas home. It was Good Friday and the high-haired promoter was not a very happy individual. Andrew Golota, who King had given an opportunity from nowhere, despite intense criticism, to fight for the IBF title against Chris Byrd the following weekend in New York, had just pulled out injured. A new opponent needed to be found ASAP to ensure that the HBO Pay-Per-View card would still go ahead.

By Matthew Blackwell: Virtually every champion tastes defeat at some stage of his career. Some lose on the way up, often in their first challenge for a major title. On occasion, a loss at this point in a fighter’s career improves his reputation; proving that he has heart, determination, and more skill than was originally thought. Such was the case when Paulie Malignaggi was defeated by Miguel Cotto in his first title challenge.

“Every so often,” essayist Arthur Krystal writes, “two men arise with differently cast minds representing different constituencies, who capture the attention of people not normally disposed to view a fight. Perhaps each battler embodies the interested spectator’s own hopes of how the world works.”

Comment By Paul Upham: Joe Calzaghe is now the undisputed super middleweight boxing champion of the world. Regardless of whether he ever tastes defeat as a professional boxer, it is the high point of his fourteen-year unbeaten career and an achievement that can never be taken away from him.

By Paul Upham: It’s not every day that you get to sit down for lunch with someone once regarded the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world. The way heavyweight boxing is going today with no one universally recognised champion, Lennox Lewis could be the last undisputed champion for a very long time. While he retired in February 2004, many fans still regard him as the real king of the heavyweight division.

By Ant Evans: Somehow a wretched, useless and utterly misleading phrase has become common currently whenever there is a debate as to the relative 'greatness' of a modern fighter; it has had and continues to have a deplorable affect on the quality of debate amongst boxing fans, writers and historians.

By Ant Evans: Thriller/chiller British light middleweight champion Jamie Moore is now kicking his training into high gear ahead of his mouth-watering defense against Matthew Macklin next month. After two postponements, what should be one of the best all British brawls of 2006 is due to take place at the Altrincham Leisure Centre on September 29 and, after initially not being keen on the fight, 'Mooresy' now cannot wait.

By Joe Queijo: Super-middleweight kingpin Joe Calzaghe may or may not be fighting on the 14 October. But it's very likely that the 34 year old injury prone Pride of Wales will not be around for too much longer. After nine years of Joe at the top of the 12stone (168lbs) division, who's going to take his place? Here we are going to look at five contenders who will could be figuring in big super-middleweight in the near future.

By Ant Evans: After narrowly beating marauding Matt Skelton in a brutal and breathlessly exciting 12 rounder in February, Danny Williams has turned to the latest hi-tec sports science as he prepares for the eagerly awaited return bout, scheduled for the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, on July 8.

Interview by Ant Evans: Whatever happens in the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Saturday night Diego Corrales has already done more than enough in his 40-3 (33KOs) career be remembered for being in great fights. But the 28-year-old lightweight needs to defeat arch nemesis Jose Luis Castillo in their rubber match in order to ensure he is remembered as a 'great fighter'.

By Ant Evans: Even though one of the participants is coming off a humbling defeat in January, and the fact that the bout is still going ahead as a 'world title' match is an embarrassment to boxing, the needle between Floyd Mayweather Junior and IBF welterweight strap-carrier Zab Judah is such that the April 8 Las Vegas clash is still going to be treated like 'an event'.

By Ant Evans: Pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Junior has relinquished the WBC junior welterweight championship he brutally mugged from Arturo Gatti last summer, in anticipation of winning the IBF welterweight belt from Zab Judah on April 8.

Mayweather told SecondsOut: "The only fight down there at 140lbs for me is Ricky Hatton, and he's even coming up to 147lbs (to face WBA title-holder Luis Collazo in May)."

By Ant Evans: Irrespective that most ringsiders believed defending champion Hasim Rahman had done enough to retain his WBC heavyweight title before the final round, the fact is that had challenger James Toney won the 12th he would have won the Atlantic City showdown and would have been crowned heavyweight champion last Saturday.

By Ant Evans: World Welterweight Champion Zab Judah's shock loss to Carlos Baldomir in New York on Saturday and the resulting cancellation of Judah's April super-fight with Floyd Mayweather Junior will not affect Ricky Hatton's plans for a 2006 American invasion.

"He was very exciting when he was around. He has only one defeat - that's no big deal. One defeat doesn't change the fact he's a great fighter. Naz has a lot more to give to boxing and I hope he does return in 2006. I would love to fight him again (after he re-establishes himself). He is still young and can get himself in shape easily."

Interview by Ant Evans: When a forlorn Vitali Klitschko, his giant body under siege by injuries for nearly a year now, retired on Wednesday promoter Don King was able to finally cry 'checkmate' in one of the longest games of political chess in his Hall of Fame career.

Now King plans to invite former champions Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield into his mooted tornament to crown a undisputed champion.

Ant Evans visits Hatton's gym: If WBA junior welterweight champion Carlos Maussa and his handlers are hopeful that Ricky Hatton's promotional entanglements will distract him from the business of unifying the WBA and IBF championships on November 26, they better pin those hopes on something else before they are violently disabused of such wishful thoughts.

Exclusive interview by Ant Evans: Trying not to let threats of legal action distract him too much, IBF junior welterweight champion Ricky Hatton is planning to sweep up all the major titles at 10stone (140lbs).

"I actually wanted Vivian Harris, who Maussa beat, next," Hatton told SecondsOut. "Vivian Harris had a big mouth and looked very silly getting beat by Massua. I don't want to look silly so I'll be preparing for this fight just as hard as I did against Tszyu."

Interview by Ant Evans: Jeff Lacy proved his potential in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he proved that he was an exciting fan favourite while serving a 16 fight professional apprenticeship and proved that he was good enough to win an alphabet 'world' title or two by beating Syd Vanderpool for the IBF belt last October. But it was only two weeks ago (August 6) when 'Left Hook' blasted the teak tough former WBC champ Robin Reid to pieces that he became a star.

By Ant Evans: Former WBC super-middleweight champion Robin Reid is about as emotional a fighter as I've come across since I began covering boxing professionally eight years ago. Whereas a large percentage of fighters switch off their everyday emotions when training camp begins, Reid's thoughts and feelings germinate away inside him like bacillus.

Interview by Ant Evans: Cocky, charismatic and once again facile princeps at light-heavyweight after settling the score with Glen Johnson a month ago, Antonio Tarver is looking for a big dance partner for his September/October return. And, tantalizingly, the reigning IBO and consensus 175lbs champion's name has been linked in a super-fight showdown with former middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins for October 1.

By Ant Evans: After hours of settlement talks failed last Thursday, New Jersey District Court Judge Williams Martini will now decide whether DaVarryl Williamson or Wladimir Klitschko gets to challenge Chris Byrd for the International Boxing Federation world heavyweight title this summer.

Interview by Ant Evans: He's young, he's powerful, he's heavy handed and plenty of people are hoping against hope that he's the future of the heavyweight division. He's Samuel Peter, the aggressive, unbeaten 'Nigerian Nightmare' who will be showcased once again this Saturday night when he clashes with once-defeated Taurus Sykes at the Events Center in Reno, Nevada (Showtime televise 9pm ET/PT).

By Clive Bernath: It never ceases to amaze me that when Britain produces a genuine heavyweight title contender, that certain members of the British press and indeed a good percentage of those within the sport, take it upon themselves to act as judge and jury as to how that particular fighter should conduct their path to the top of the greatest prize sport.

By Clive Bernath:
When a new year begins it is a traditional trait for most boxing writers, and fans come to think of it, to reflect on the past 12 months and dream up their own wish list of fights they want to see in 2004.

By Anthony Evans
Thirty-two years ago George Foreman blitzed world heavyweight champion and fellow legend Joe Frazier in two of the most one-sided and chilling displays of human firepower in the history of fighting.